Major government contractors are pushing the costs of rising national insurance (NI) and higher wage bills back onto the Treasury, prompting concerns over the ultimate burden on taxpayers. Cleaning and facilities management groups such as Churchill Group and Mitie, together with construction giant Mace, are among those negotiating with Whitehall to pass on the financial impact of April’s employment-related tax ...
Middle-class parents have welcomed the government’s move to introduce a 20 per cent VAT charge on private school fees, according to education secretary Bridget Phillipson. Speaking ahead of the policy’s launch this Wednesday, Phillipson says that many families are “priced out” of independent education by rising costs, and now want a stronger state system instead. With some boarding schools charging ...
A survey by one of the UK’s top holiday providers has found that senior executives choose Austria ski holidays above destinations in other alpine nations, not only for corporate meetings and incentive travel but also for their own family ski trips. Here’s how the Austrian Alps beat France to become your boss’ winter sports vacation go-to. For many in the ...
The Republican attorneys general of Virginia and Montana recently filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to require TikTok to sever its ties with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) as the fate of the social media platform in the U.S. remains uncertain. The amicus brief, filed Friday, came the same day President-elect Trump filed an amicus brief of his ...
President Biden still regrets dropping out of the 2024 presidential race last summer after mounting pressure from Democrats to step aside, according to a report. The president recently told people that he still believes he could have beaten Trump in the November election, despite his rough debate performance in June and his low approval numbers that forced him to leave ...
Generally, there are 3 key hedges against inflation – gold ($GOLD), commodities ($XRB), and real estate (XLRE). While the Fed has taken a renewed interest in the short-term rising inflationary picture, which, by the way, is in direct contrast to what Fed Chief Powell said in late August and September, Wall Street simply isn’t seeing the same picture. Talk is ...
Everyone’s blaming health insurance company greed for the soaring claims denials and roadblocks to care. That’s naive. Follow the money to find the real culprits: lying politicians. In 2013, before Affordable Care Act regulations kicked in, insurers denied roughly 1.5% of claims, according to the American Medical Association. But under ACA rules, denials increased tenfold. Now nearly 15% of claims ...
The end of the year is a natural time to look back on the previous 12 months, and 2024 was one for the political record books. Having been left for dead politically and survived multiple actual assassination attempts, President-elect Trump completed an unthinkable comeback. He stands on the precipice of re-assuming the presidency in a manner few could have envisioned ...
In much of the English-speaking world, but not America, the day after Christmas is called Boxing Day. For reasons that are entirely unclear, DOGE bros Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk decided to take the occasion to don boxing gloves and throw haymakers at native-born American workers. What started off with Musk saying on his social media platform X, and not ...
The presidential election generated numerous high-profile political gaffes this year, including President Biden’s widely-panned debate performance and him calling Trump supporters ‘garbage’ in the closing days of Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. Here are six of the biggest political gaffes of 2024: Biden’s debate debacle: Hoarse voice, rambling answers spark panic from Democrats A disastrous performance by President Biden during ...